D2S Editor Favs: Week of March 3, 2008

  Favorite Mad-Designer Appliance

Check out this Swiss-designed gizmo that just landed in the kitchen to help you make espresso! The Etienne Lewis is orb-aliscious, and wacky enough design-wise to rise above the crowded fray of coffeemaking solutions.

  Favorite Room With a View

It's early March, and already we're getting Spring Fever! We love this Brisbane, Australia home, with clean living space flowing beautifully into a decked outdoor room. Check out the fab design to inspire home design blog from Australia (we love them, and they first posted this photo) and the equally fab and inspirational At Home with Kim Vallee blog (great home entertainment inspiration, from recipes to tabletop gems).

  Favorite Antiques

Look what our friends at Bond & Bowery have for us this week: a set of four hipped-out mid-century Windsor-style chairs from "America's Decorator," Paul McCobb. Check out Bond & Bowery Presents and learn more about these timeless beauties in our companion By George! column.

  Favorite Furniture Design Idea

Matthew Kroeker has great furniture and industrial design ideas, and his Oma coffeetable offers this removable plastic tray that also flips to seamlessly continue the walnut veneer of the surface.

  Favorite Thing to Push Around the House

The Siemens automatic vacuum cleaner adjusts automatically to different floor surfaces to get the maximum cleaning power required, from hardwood floors to carpeting to shag. The machine is designed to use less energy than most vacuums, it's built to function quietly, and it claims to filter out allergens and irritants and make your home's air cleaner. We like the no-bending-over-to-adjust-the-machine part.

  Favorite Storage Solutions

Fix My Garage is a company that will visit your home, scope out and measure your garage, present a custom plan based on your storage needs and wants, then execute. We got a butch attack just thinking about how handy and practical it would be to get a complete garage makeover as part of our Spring Cleaning ritual.

  Favorite Yard

Charlotte Rowe Garden Design created this beautiful, functional British yard and garden design.

D2S Editor Favs: Week of February 25, 2008

  Favorite Spring Fling Splurge

Looking for something to splurge on for your yard or garden? Then look no further than Tracy Porter's heavenly A Beautiful Dream bridge made from mango wood.

  Favorite Crafts Couple

Master designers Aaron Yakim and Cynthia Taylor create beautiful Appalachian White Oak Baskets that would look amazing in your home. Their sculptural forms would fit into any decor, and you can use them to gather eggs!

  Favorite Palm Beach Show Fine Furniture

Our friends at Bond & Bowery have just returned from the big Palm Beach Show, and they brought back with them an unsold item -- one that should have been snapped up due to its beauty, high quality, and affordability. Read more about this amazing Adam Style Console in this week's Bond & Bowery Presents column. 

  Favorite Storage System

System Stahblom from TAF inspires storage lust in us. Imagine this in a home office, dining room, bedroom, or any room to solve clutter and storage problems. This architecture and design firm has outstanding offerings.

  Favorite Old Book Resource

Steven Schuyler Bookseller specializes in rare books in the building professions and trades, landscape architecture, interior design, antiques, historic preservation, and the decorative arts. This illustration is a Louis Tiffany interior from a rare embossed-cover copy of Constance Cary Harrison's book Woman's Handiwork in Modern Homes.

  Favorite Wine Appliance

Subzero's 427R Wine-Refrigerator seems big on the wine and small on the refrigerator -- but drink up and enjoy because it's beautiful, it's functional, and it's a kitchen status symbol.

  Favorite Good-Idea Mobile Home

We admit that mobile homes are not necessarily good ideas to begin with, but if one were to choose a great idea in mobile homes, we vote for The Orb. It's a lightweight, oval-shaped, well-insulated mobile home that comfortably sleeps 7 without sacrificing contemporary style.

  Favorite Hot Home Theater System

Out since last July, Sony's Bravia TheaterSync home theater system (around $800 and a complete in-a-box solution) features the micro DAV-IS 10 satellite speakers that pump out big sound for a small home space.